I'm sure everyone out there has now seen the youtube video of the guilty dog!!

Well, I think the video is very cute myself and it definitely is. But for you guys out there who really want to know if dogs can look guilty? Consult with a dear friend of mine, Julie Hecht, who studied dog psychology in Hungary. Here's the video first (since it's very cute, indeed;

The takeaway messages from the morning show [on ABC] are:1) Denver must have eaten the cat treats because when shown the empty bag and asked, “Did you do this?” Denver displays squinting eyes, thumping tail, looking away and presenting teeth;2) Masey, the other dog in the room, does not show such behaviors and is deemed innocent;

3) The owners proclaim that both Denver and Masey are sneaky;4) The owners also say that Denver displays these behaviors when she has misbehaved. According to them, she tries hard to please them and knows when she has disappointed them.Research finds that dog owners ascribe guilt to dogs. There is a reason this video received more than 5 million hits. Dog owners observe particular behaviors* - such as "avoiding eye contact, lying down and rolling to the side or onto the back, dropping the tail, wagging low and quickly, holding one’s ears down or head down, moving away from the owner, raising a paw and licking" - and owners believe these behaviors correspond with a dog's feeling of guilty. In a 2008 research paper**, 74% of dog owners attribute guilt to dogs (as an FYI, the next highest attribution of guilt was made by horse owners at 36%). Additionally, dog owners believe that when dogs show “guilty” behaviors, dogs KNOW they have done something owners disapprove of. To spell it out, owners believe that “guilty” behavior corresponds with knowledge of a misdeed.

The New York Times piece, “It’s an Owner’s Scolding That Makes a ‘Guilty’ Dog”, covered Dr. Alexandra Horowitz's research into the “guilty look”. This research found that if you scold a dog, you could see “guilty” behaviors. Dr. Horowitz said that the results show that dogs have learned to act in a certain way in response to their owners’ behavior: "We’ve trained them that when they see us angry, they give us that guilty look. I’m not saying they don’t feel guilt," she added. "I can’t test that yet. But we generate the context that prompts them to produce this look"

Some children belong to rigid families in which certain degree of freedom will not give to children. Such student makes their books as the best source of entertainment and enjoyment. They read their books on daily basis and always find something new from it.

Fortunately, I also got the chance to watch the video you're referring. Videos on Youtube featuring how smart our dogs were make me happy all the time. They are very intelligent, and you get to realized that it's not only human being who are blessed with sharp minds because they know how to follow orders. At the same time, it's not just about the tricks they can do! I am happier to see video of them learning the right attitude wherein you can see them behaving the right way.